Clairvoyance
by reikobuns
Summary: Kenshiro and his companions have finally found peace, but in a world that's forever changing, peace did not live long. When the village that Kenshiro has recently visits is attacked by a group of bandits, he finds himself seeking out old allies to help with a new journey; bring a young disabled woman home. However, his new companion is far from normal and brings a long new danger.
1. Norcross

**Clairvoyance**

**Plot:** Kenshiro and his companions have finally found peace, but in a world that's forever changing, peace did not live long. When the village that Kenshiro has recently visited is attacked by a group of bandits, he finds himself seeking out old allies to help with a new journey; bring a young disabled woman home. However, his new companion is far from normal and brings a long new danger.

**Chapter One: Norcross**

It was the same old scene, nothing but parched dirt, half buried rubble, the hot scorching sun, and harsh wind that sometimes made sand cut the flesh of the creature that dared to walk against it. It was a scene that Kenshiro was all too familiar with and the urge to press on to find some kind of life was what kept him going.

He wasn't entirely sure how long he had been walking for. Sweat drizzled down his face and left wet marks under his arms, chest, and back. He had taken the bandages that he had wrapped around his right forearm to wrap over his head to protect it from the sun. Somewhere along his journey he had found an old blanket buried in the sand. He had cut a hole in it to create a makeshift poncho to protect what little of his skin wasn't already covered by his clothing.

Every so often, the heat bouncing back from the ground got to Ken, and today seemed to be one of those days. With each step he took, it felt like his legs weighed a hundred pounds each that sunk deeper into the sand. No matter how tired he became, he knew that he had to keep going, Lin and Bat were hoping for a visit in the future and he still had little Ryu that he had left with Balga to return too so that he may become a student of the formidable _Hokuto Shinken_ martial arts style. There was still so much that he had left to do, he couldn't just give up now.

Then it was like a miracle happened, through the blistering heat wave, off in the distance, Kenshiro could see the outline of what looked like to be a village, and a rather large and established one. He stopped to take a moment to try to convince his mind that he wasn't imaging things, and it felt like the only way that he was going to convince his mind was to move forward. It felt like it took him forever, but he finally reached the village. His presence seemed large to those that took up residence, and they all stopped and stared to take in his appearance.

It was clear that he was exhausted, overly exhausted. His cheeks were flushed bright red, and sweat started to show on his dusty poncho. He stood with his shoulders slumped a bit forward his breathing picked up as he suddenly realized just how tired and hot he was from the sun. Before he could say anything, he caught movement from the corner of his eye, a man was approaching. His clothing was a little more put together, but still frayed and dirty in certain spots. The lime green t-shirt was old and worn out but politely covered by a brown pullover shirt with the middle open. The man's jeans were torn at the knees and frayed at the bottom and his right shoe had a hole on the top. He reached out and took Kenshiro's arm gently, tugging it upward to help the martial artist to stand straighter.

"The name's Mika, I'm the village doctor." The man started as he ushered Ken off into the shade. "Come on into my office before you pass out from a heat stroke."

Ken went willingly, following him into a building that had been damaged in the war, but has since slowly been repaired. They both stepped down a few feet below the street and underneath the overhead of the door. Mika pulled back the draping cloth over the door and allowed Kenshiro to enter first. He ducked down to fit through the doorway and reached out for the table that was immediately on the right to prevent himself from meeting violently with the floor. He didn't realize just how tired his body actually was until he was offered to the opportunity to sit.

"Over here," Mika instructed him to sit on an old twin sized bed, and there Kenshiro dropped himself heavily. Mika waited a moment for his patient to collect himself before he went right in with a vital examination. He had been a doctor before the war and was just about ready to start his own practice when the first set of bombs hit. Although it wasn't really difficult for him to start something when he realized that he survived. Almost every settlement was looking for a good or decent doctor to help their people, Mika was just lucky that he was able to settle into a village that was so far from any other civilization that they were virtually untouched by the bandits running rampant out in the Wasteland.

"We don't get a lot of visitors here," said Mika as he lifted a pair of old stethoscopes with the right ear bud broken off. "So, when it happens people generally don't know how to react." When Kenshiro didn't make a sound or a comment, Mika continued. "You're going to be fine, just some heat exhaustion. I do suggest that you take a break from wherever it is that you're going."

"Nowhere," Ken answered stoically, "All I need is some water, if you have any to spare."

Mika took a moment to look him over. He was young, extremely fit, and looked like a man that wasn't going to take a doctor's order. So he sighed defeatedly and stood up with his knees cracking. He crossed the room to an open doorway where he then disappeared for several minutes. When he reappeared, he held an old war canister with a beat-up military green strap.

"Here," Mika handed the object over, "It's not much, so you'll need to conserve it and hope that it makes you to the next village."

"Thank you." Kenshiro placed the canister by his side, "I don't have much in return."

Mika waved his hand and leaned against the door-frame. "Don't worry about it, a lot of folks here don't have much so I generally don't charge unless I gotta break out the good stuff."

Ken smirked and nodded. In a world that was so mean, it was nice to find those little candles in the dark. It didn't happen often, but when it did those were the people that stuck with Kenshiro and reminded him what he fought for.

Just as Ken was about to stand up to head back out on his journey, the distant sound of revving engines got close that was quickly accompanied by the howling of bandits. Kenshiro knew all too well what that meant, especially if he didn't get out there and take care of the situation. He took a moment to glance at Mika as he stood, the good doctor's face had fallen and become pale.

Then he stammered on his words, "how… how is this possible? Bandits had _never_ come here before."

"What's the name of this village?"

"Norcross."

"Never heard of it.

"Exactly." Mika rushed out to see what was happening. He peered out just in time to see several cars, probably about ten or twenty of them, ride straight into town, most of the skidding out and covering a lot of the fleeing residents in dirt and dust. He quickly looked around to assess the problem, but knew that if anyone was going to be killed or injured, he wasn't going to have to capabilities to assess and help every single victim.

That was when his eyes had fallen upon a child that had lost their grip on their mother's hand and fell in the middle of the street. The red-headed little girl with dark freckles looked up, her mother screaming in slow motion. The sound to a revving up engine and squealing tires caused the young human to look forward to see a crazed man with a mohawk cladded with leather-like spandex and tattoos floored his vehicle in her direction. She knew that she should be getting up, but all of her muscles froze, paralyzed with fear.

Mika knew that he was never going to reach her, but he made the attempt anyway. He climbed out of the little ditch that his office sat in, but stumbled what he thought was over his own feet when in fact he had been shoved to the side for his safety. In a blur of dark blue, Kenshiro was on the young child in a blink of an eye. He scooped her up and quickly leapt out of the way of the speeding vehicle. The driver seemed startled that he didn't feel the familiar bone crushing vibration under his tires, so he slammed on his brakes. His car came to a screeching halt. He threw it into park and stood up in his seat, peering over. To his dismay, he didn't find a body in the street, nor did he find any kind of sign of roadkill anywhere. So his eyes went to the side of the street where he quickly spotted Kenshiro putting the child down so that she could cling to her mother for dear life.

"Oh thank you! Thank you so much for saving my little girl."

The bandit became immediately annoyed, "hey! You!" Kenshiro looked over his shoulder to see the criminal pointing a spiked club at him. "Who said that you could ruin my fun?"

"Taking innocent lives isn't fun," Kenshiro barked back, his eyes glaring.

The bandit was taken aback a little bit from the look in his enemy's eyes, it was almost as if he could feel the daggers digging into his skin. He shook it off however and jumped over the door of his vehicle landing with a soft 'thud' and a dust cloud to complete it. He growled, his body stiff as he stalked towards Ken. "You're going to regret this, pal."

Except nothing but a louder engine revving took over and caught everyone's attention. Approaching the village was a much larger car with a float like stage built on the back of it. Sitting upon the stage was a large metal throne with a man sitting quite comfortably. Next to him was something that Kenshiro had never seen before in all of his travels.

At his side, on their knees, was a young woman, most likely a few years younger than Ken. She had ashen white hair and porcelain skin. Her clothing was that of a slave, dirty, somewhat revealing and held in place by a tan rope tied around her waist. Her arms and legs were covered in bruises that made it apparent that she wasn't treated kindly. This young woman was shackled to the stage by heavy thick iron chains and given her state Kenshiro could tell that it was taking every ounce of strength that this woman had not to drop on her face.

Her beauty reminded Kenshiro of Yuria…

Anger began to well inside of Kenshiro's chest and without realizing it, he was clenching his fists and grinding his teeth. He needed to keep himself in check to assess the situation that presented itself. Right now he was severely outnumbered – not like that mattered to him – and he needed to keep in mind the people of this village and the poor young woman up on the vehicle stage. He knew that saving them all was the best answer, and he knew he could do it; but that didn't mean that he wanted to rush in head first like he used too. Over the years Kenshiro has learned that the only way to fight violence was with violence, but if he could somehow spare innocent people from involving themselves in that lifestyle he'd find and execute any other possible solution. He only wished that he could have thought and done that for Bat and Lin.

So Ken stayed put, and decided to wait it out to see what would happen.

The man sitting in the moving throne was larger but not the largest that the martial artist had seen. Strapped to his golden shoulder pads was a dark purple cape that draped down onto the floor. His eyes looked sunken into his large head, but comparatively the size of his head didn't match the size of his muscular body. Hanging on side of his throne was a crossbow nestled into a holster, on the other side, closest to his enslaved woman, was a large spiked club. With the way that this large and oddly small headed bandit had his hands placed, it seemed that he favored the crossbow as his primary weapon. All the men that had so violently entered the village had now started to congregate closer to their leader. Most of them had evil chuckles while the rest seemed content with contorting their faces with evil smirks.

"My name is Zoron!" the leader bellowed out, finally getting to his feet. Kenshiro couldn't help but turn his eyes toward the innocent woman at his feet, who seemed to flinch at his movement. "And your village, supplies, and women, all belong to _me_!" Zoron then started to laugh manically.

An audible gasp came from all the villagers, families clutching at each other, and children hiding. It was clear to Ken that this village had been segregated for so long that none of them knew how to respond in this situation. How this tiny place managed it, he wasn't sure, but he applauded them for keeping themselves a secret. And it only made him want to hurry up and defeat these pathetic excuses of human beings.

"I'll give you three chances." Kenshiro's voice was deafening.

Zoron stopped, "huh?" His eyes scanned the crowd, to find the source of the defiant soul who had a death wish. None of the townsfolk seemed too particularly threatening, until his eyes laid upon Kenshiro. Zoron raised an eyebrow. "What did you just say?"

Kenshiro held up three fingers. "You get three chances to leave and that's all."

"Ha! You're hilarious!"

"Three."

"Man, you must have a death wish pal!"

Kenshiro lowered his first finger. "Two."

"You and what army is going to defeat the Zoron Bandits!?" Zoron bellowed, his arms outstretched, he chuckled again. "You're going to die here."

This time, Kenshiro paused before tucking his second finger into a fist. "One."

It was like a command, members of the Zoron Bandits rushed at Keshiro, raising their clubs and lifting their crossbows to try to beat him to death. It was a fight that he had seen several times before and a battle that he's won countless times. Kenshiro dodged the first bandit that reached him, his hand chopping at the back of his head. Then he started to move through the crowd, channeling his energy through his attacks and battle shouts as his fists and fingers hit the vital points of his enemies. When he reached the end of the first wave, Keshiro named out the devastating blow.

"_Honsha Bakuretsu Ken_! Spilling Wheel Exploding Fist!" During the callout, the heads and bodies of his enemies began to implode, staining the ground with their innards. The violent end to human life caused the villagers to gasp, some covering their eyes and hiding their children from the massacre. But for some it was like a train wreck, they just couldn't look away.

Zoron however looked at the gruesome sight with widened eyes and an open jaw. How this man's simple touch could make people imploded was beyond his comprehension. That made him angry. He growled audibly then turned towards his slave to grab onto the chain around her throat and yanked her forward. She choked and stumbled, dropping to his feet as Zoron leaned in and shouted over her.

"You said that there was no one here to protect this damn village!"

The young woman flinched, "I'm sorry!" she shouted. "I didn't _see_ him!"

Zoron raised his hand to strike her with his club. "I'm not taking that excuse this time!"

With the same speed as before, Kenshiro charged toward Zoron's vehicle to leap and kick the club right out of his hand. Zoron stumbled back nearly stepping off of the board. Though he put enough space between him and his slave for Kenshiro to place himself right in between them. "Don't touch her," spat Kenshiro his eyes glaring.

If there was one thing that Zoron hated the most, it was someone that he felt was lesser than him to be glaring in his direction. It irked him and made his blood boil. He could almost feel his face turning red from rage. He gritted his teeth and stammered on his words trying to insult the man that just massacred more than half of his men. If he didn't end this soon, he was sure that he was going to be next.

"Die!" Zoron quickly raised his crossbow. Up against a man with this type of skill, Zoron knew that in order to win, he needed to use all the weapons that he had available to him. So he fired before anyone else could move.

In a blink of an eye, Kenshiro caught the arrow between two of his fingers just mere inches from his face then immediately turned it around to launch the arrow back to his owner, where it dug directly into his left eye. Zoron screamed and stumbled back, tumbling off of his grand stage. He could feel the warm liquid coming down his face. He used his hands to try to clean up the mess but it was no avail. It felt almost as if every time he touched a spot near his wound the arrow would embed deeper into his eye. He screamed again in agony. His men came to his side, some of them wanted to keep fighting, while the rest of the loaded their boss into the next available car then spun off. Leaving behind the moat vehicle along with Zoron's precious cargo.

Kenshiro waited till the dust cloud of their wheels faded away. When he knew that it was safe, he turned to kneel down to inspect the woman that was left behind. Now that Kenshiro was up close, he could really get a look at the woman's injuries. However, it wasn't the injuries that caught his attention, it was her eyes. He didn't notice it before, he was too far away, but her eyes had a thick white clouded haze over them; she was blind.

The woman knew that there was someone before her, but she wasn't sure if it was her savior or her captor. Quietly, she spoke, "w-who's there?"

"My name is Kenshiro," he raised his hands to gently take the shackle around her throat into his grasp. "You can call me Ken. Now, try hard not to move, I'm going to remove your shackles." After getting a nod of approval, Ken took in a deep breath through his nose and out slowly from his mouth. He did this several times as his body relaxed. "Hm!" His muscles tightened with the hard yank to the shackles. They metal easily split into two freeing her throat. She took in a deeper breath as her body relaxed. Kenshiro allowed her to rub at the newly freed spot that had become irritated, bruised, and rubbed raw from the metal. When she was finished, he worked on removing the shackles on her wrists and ankles to reveal that they were in just as bad of a shape as her throat.

"Can you walk?"

"I…I don't think so."

"Hey," Kenshiro looked over to see that Mika had approached, "bring her into my clinic, I'll take a look at her."

Kenshiro nodded, then turned back to the freed slave. "I'm going to pick you up, is that alright?" She nodded her head so Kenshiro leaned forward to gently scoop her into his arms. As he lifted her, he could feel just how thin she was. He almost felt like he was carrying a glass doll.

The moment that she moved, the woman grabbed onto the closest thing that she could to secure herself, Ken's shirt. And he allowed it. He could only imagine how uncomfortable she must be. She was in an area that she potentially didn't know, injured, and most likely lived all of her life cowering and chained to be constantly at a man's foot. He moved slow for her, to allow her to gather her bearings. Her hands came up to grasp as the open jean vest, her thumb brushing against his chest as she did so. Then it wandered to find a part of the famous scar on his chest.

"You… you really are Kenshiro," she said in disbelief, "I've been waiting for you."


	2. Adonai

**Chapter Two: Adonai**

Kenshiro stood, shocked, staring at the woman in his arms. He was trying to search for her face in all of his memories, but he was certain that he had never met her. In fact, he was confident that this was their first meeting. Before he could dive in deeper, Mika rushed up to them and Kenshiro felt the good doctor place a hand on his shoulder.

"Bring her to my clinic, I'll take a look at her."

Kenshiro nodded, then followed him back to the very twin sized bed that he was treated on. Carefully and slowly, Kenshiro lowered the fragile woman on the bed, giving her hand a comforting squeeze as he stepped away to allow more room for Mika to work. Ken went to the doorway to peek outside. The townspeople gathered in the center, where most of the bodies had been located. A lot of them stared in disgust that this was what the human race had succumbed too. Those that were used to it, grabbed the victims of the lethal martial arts to drag them out of town.

He turned to watch Mika examine the young woman. His hands were gentle and he told her everything that he was about to do so she wasn't caught off guard. The woman kept her head facing forward and moved appropriately to allow Mika to do his work. As Kenshiro watched her, he wondered the kind of life that she had live to grant her the strength to keep as still as she was. Most people would be weary around strangers. But she kept her head high and her eyes forward. She had strength.

"So, what's your name?" asked Mika as he gently lifted the back of her dress to listen to her breathing. Before he did though, he noticed the large bruises in the shape of a boot on her sides. He couldn't help but frown.

"Adonai."

"That's an interesting name."

"It was the name of my grandmother," she continued, her fingers fiddling with the frayed ends of her clothes. "I never got to meet her, but my father always spoke highly of her."

"And where is he now?" Kenshiro questioned, turning away from the door to lean against the wall.

Adonai turned her head towards the sound of his voice, "to… be honest I'm not quite sure. It's… been a long time since I was able to _see _him."

"How long have you been blind if you don't mind my asking?" It was an invasive question, but Mika needed to know if he was going to try to treat her properly. A lot of people during this time didn't quite remember much of their medical history, but the medical professional in him always needed to ask.

"I'm not sure," she answered honestly, half tempted to lift a hand and touch her face. "Probably since I was a teenager at this point."

"How do you know me?" Kenshiro's voice was loud, assertive to the point where it caught the attention of Mika who looked at him baffled. "I don't remember ever meeting you."

Adonai's face fell, "it's complicated."

"I have time to listen."

Mika felt like there was tension building, so after his examination he stood up, "why don't we let her rest for a moment? She'll be able to eat, we can get her some water and better clothing, then she can answer your questions."

Kenshiro looked down towards Mika. He knew that the doctor was right, Adonai was in pretty bad shape. Her body was malnourished and desperately needed water. However he also needed his answers and a part of him didn't want to wait. Ken knew that his name had traveled far through the Wasteland, but he didn't particularly believe that it carried so much weight that a young blind woman could find him.

"It's alright," Adonai spoke, her hands moving to touch the fabrics on the bed. "I can eat and answer his questions."

Mika turned to look at his patient and he debated. Kenshiro was an intimidating guy, and while he hadn't actually hurt anyone that was deemed innocent, a part of him felt that this conversation could go wrong. Maybe he felt like that only because of the way people became after the Great War. A part of him figured though that he could trust Kenshiro enough alone with Adonai that he could step out, get her food and water, and come back to find them both in one piece. He did, and luckily the conversation didn't start till he came back because he wanted to know just as much as Ken.

Adonai accepted the food graciously, and was careful to place the tray next to her. "This is… going to sound strange so I doubt you'll believe me."

"Well, just tell us anyway." Mika urged, grabbing a chair from the corner of the room to move to sit near Adonai.

She tilted her head towards the sound. Kenshiro could tell that she was trying to figure out if it was a threat or not. "Well, my family lived near one of the first cities attacked in the nuclear war. Most of them died from radiation poisoning. I survived, along with my dad. But when I was young, I started to lose my sight. My dad took me to see a doctor who specialized in radiation poisoning and told us that I was losing my eye sight because of the large amount of radiation.

"Then… I started to dream about things, other places and villages. Events that were going to happen in my life and the people around me. I thought that I was experiencing déjà vu. But when I started to do something… like catching someone who was going to trip, or helping someone who had fallen after I had lost my sight, word got out that I was psychic."

Mika and Kenshiro listened carefully, her words fell a little harder on Mika than it did Kenshiro. Mika had a hard time believing in anything that was considered supernatural. Science was always able to prove it wrong, however when it seemed like science was the thing that created it, it didn't seem so hard to believe. Of course, he didn't know anything about her, so he didn't really have to believe anything that she said. Though something told him that she might not be wrong.

Kenshiro on the other hand, he has seen someone claim to be psychic but in reality, they just had an art of being extremely observant. The Colonel from the God Army claimed to be psychic, but really, he could just read the movements of the body and predict what his opponent's next move was going to be. This though seemed a bit different. Adonai was blind, so obviously she couldn't see the reactions of people around her. That only left one other option, she was actually clairvoyant.

"I have only just recently started _seeing _Mr. Kenshiro," added Adonai, "but I knew that… he could be the one to save me from Zoron's grasp."

"How long did he keep you captive?" Mika inquired, stealing a glance or two at the tall martial artist standing near the door. Kenshiro seemed to have no reaction to any of this information. He stood there stoic with his arms over his chest and his eyes never leaving the person who was speaking.

"Too long," she answered, her fingers combing through the knotted ends of her hair. "I honestly lost track." She went back to fiddling with her clothing.

Mika watched her every move and immediately he could deduce that she had anxiety. Who wouldn't after everything that she had been through? Especially even now as she was in the presence with two strange men. "What do you plan to do now?" Mika asked.

Adonai took a moment to reply, almost as if she was trying to think of an answer. Though she knew what she wanted, but a part of her was nervous to answer. "I was hoping that… Mr. Kenshiro could help me go home."

Kenshiro raised an eyebrow, and when no one said anything, Adonai continued. "It's been years since I've been with my father and been in my own village. Part of the reason why I led Zoron here was because I knew that you'd help me become free of him. And now, I want to know if you'd help me reach my village."

"Where's home?" Kenshiro asked.

"The Village of New Day." Adonai had turned her head to face in the direction of Ken's voice.

Mika's eyes became wide. "The Village of New Day? Seriously?"

"You've heard of it?" Ken turned towards the good doctor, who also turned to look at him.

"I mean, I've heard stories that it's the only village that has a clean source of water and plentiful crops and animals. Kind of like a paradise in this terrible era that we're living in. But…" Mika took a glance at Adonai who had tilted her head to hear them better. "I don't know anyone who had actually left the village."

"I… I know," Adonai stammered, her eyes directed towards the floor. "When I was captured by Zoron I had been on a trip with my father when were ambushed."

Mika frowned. His heart broke for her. It seemed that she had a rough life so it was no wonder that she wanted to get home. Rumor had it that The Village of New Day was a paradise. Tons of people journeyed there after hearing about the plentiful resources it had. But there was never any word of someone who had actually made it to the village. So hearing that Adonai hailed from that very place seemed magical and nearly impossible. There was a possibility that there was nothing left for her to return too if she and her father had been ambushed. Although the doctor understood her reasoning for wanting to go back and see for herself. Her family lived there (or so it seemed), that was her home after the nuclear war. He'd want to return to Norcross if he had been taken away and kept as a slave for some of his life.

He turned towards Kenshiro to assess how the large man was taking her request. Just like before though, he gave no indication that he was even interested. His face stayed poised but his eyes watched Adonai closely. Just like the doctor, Kenshiro felt for her and understood her plight.

Kenshiro closed his eyes and lowered his head. "I'll take you there."

Adonai's face lit up with joy, while Mika's was filled with surprise. "You will?" they said in unison, neither one of them taking their eyes off of the martial artist.

"I will." Kenshiro inclined his head to look at Adonai. "However, you need to get stronger first." Adonai's face fell a little bit as he spoke. "You won't survive such a long journey in your current state. We'll need to stay here to feed you and allow your body to heal before we leave."

"What will you travel in?" Mika inquired, gesturing out into the wilderness of the Wasteland. "You yourself was just traveling on foot when you arrived here."

"We'll take one of the jeeps that the bandits left behind." Kenshiro pushed himself off of the wall to look at Mika. "Does your village have any fuel that we can trade for?"

"Uh… maybe? I'm not sure. No one ever really ventures outside of our own town." Mika replied, "it's dangerous."

"What about a place to stay till she's better?"

"Well…" Mika rubbed at his chin. "I guess you two can stay with me. I'll check with some of the women around here to see if they have any clothes that they're willing to part with so that she has something to protect her from the sun."

Adonai beamed. "Oh thank you, thank you both so much."

"Thank me when we get you home, for now. Focus on recovering." Kenshiro turned and stepped out of the clinic so that he could also prepare for a journey he wasn't entirely sure what was going to be the outcome.


	3. Skeptical Truth

**Chapter Three: Skeptical Truth**

Unlike his first patient, Adonai had really taken to Mika's orders. She rested for as long as she could to allow for her injuries to heal. And she allowed Mika to change the bandages on her throat, wrists, and ankles and even let Kenshiro learn how to do so for when they were on the move. She was a pleasant woman and the village seemed to like her. One of the women in the village allowed for her to borrow a pair of black pants, a white blouse with a brown middle belt, and brown worn out tall boots.

Kenshiro kept himself busy with one of the cars left behind by the Zoron Bandits. He didn't know as much about cars as Bat did, but he knew enough to do basic work, so he kept himself occupied with that while he thought about the request that he had taken up. In the beginning, Kenshiro wasn't too keen on the idea of having someone travel with him, but he had to admit that he enjoyed the company that Bat and Lin gave him. They became like a family to each other and with that all of them became each other's strength but also each's other weakness. A part of his was curious if the same thing was going to happen with Adonai.

Though he was a bit skeptical of her claims of being a psychic. While the logic behind it made sense, there had just been a few too many times that he had been up against someone who claimed to have abilities like hers and they proved to be wrong. However all of those supposed psychics happened to be fighters so it was easy to spot what they were doing to make it appear that they had powers, this woman was disabled. And while Kenshiro watched her interact with the townsfolk, she displayed nothing that could make him doubt her. He wanted to know more.

The time came for them to depart came. Adonai was already in the passenger seat grasping at the hands of the children that have come to love her to say goodbye. Kenshiro stood on the driver's side with the door open watching her. It wasn't until he felt a familiar tap on his shoulder was his attention finally turned away from his new companion.

Mika handed him a medical bag. "You guys might need this." Ken took the bag by the straps. "It's some medical supplies. It won't raise you from the dead, but it could potentially keep the both of you from dying."

Kenshiro smirked. "Thank you," he reached to place the bag in the back seat behind the driver's side. He took a glance towards the rear-end of the car to see that the food and water that was given to them from the town's residents was finally loaded and locked up.

"You guys be careful alright?" Mika peered around Ken to look at Adonai. "Did you hear me?"

Adonai tilted her head towards Mika, "of course."

Mika nodded, "good." He looked up at Kenshiro then held out his hand "Come on by when you're in the area. And stay safe. I'll be thinking of you guys."

Kenshiro firmly grasped Mika's hand, giving a nod in response. Then he loaded himself into the jeep. He turned the key and the engine roared to life, after taking a glance at Adonai to make sure that she was safely strapped in her seat, he put the vehicle in drive, and peeled out of the village. In the rearview mirror he could see everyone waving and the children jumping to make sure that they could seen through the dust of the wheels.

The beginning of their journey was silent. Adonai peered out the missing passenger window and Kenshiro kept his eyes forward on the invisible road ahead. Adonai though could feel the suspicion radiating off of him like a detonated aged bomb. And the silence was starting to get to her.

Recently her life had been in shambles and silence was something that she couldn't sit comfortably with. Silence normally meant that there was a punishment coming. It was starting to make her skin crawl. So she turned in his direction but was well aware that she was stating passed him.

Before she could get a word out, Kenshiro's deep voice was carried on the whipping wind. "Tell me about your powers."

She couldn't say she was surprised, something told her that he'd be hard to convince. But she wasn't here to convince him that she was psychic, she was here to convince him that she wanted to go home.

"What do you want to know?" She turned to face him and she could only imagine the look on his face. Stoic, with both hands on the wheel, keeping his eyes forward. Adonai wasn't that far off in her prediction. She felt as if she was doing everything wrong, but she was well aware that it was jarring to have someone sitting next to you that seemed to know details of your life without having actually meeting them. She could only assume how uncomfortable he was.

A few minutes had passed without an answer from him. "I… guess I'll just start from the beginning."

"What kind of powers do you have?" his voice was solid, smooth, careful almost but also cautious. She could understand that.

"Mostly visions," Adonai answered, moving her ashen hair from the corner of her mouth as it moved about in the wind. "They come usually in my sleep. But sometimes I get this feeling of..." she searched for the word that best fit her answer. "Knowing? I guess. If that makes sense."

"Knowing?"

"Yeah, kind of like deja vu, but it's a deeper feeling. And I get flashes of them too. Pictures in my mind." She shrugged her shoulders, her confidence falling. "I know it sounds so far-fetched but—"

"Does it hurt?"

Adonai was caught off guard, "excuse me?"

"These visions that you have," Ken clarified. "Do they hurt you?"

It took Adonai a moment to respond. She was in the middle of taking in his question. Out of everything that she had been through, no one had ever asked her if something had hurt. It was a tiny gesture of compassion that she was unfamiliar with and unsure of how to reply to it. "How do you mean?"

"Are there side-effects?" he reworded, stealing a glance at his passenger. "Anything that I should be aware of on our travels?"

Adonai smoothed the hair out of her face. "Well, I get a lot of headaches from them." She leaned her head back against the seat, closing her eyes to take in the warmth of the sun. "Sometimes I also get nose bleeds and the headaches can get so bad where I'm nearly rendered useless. But those are rare occasions."

Kenshiro grunted as he narrowed his eyes onto the non-existent road. He couldn't help but feel that this young woman was beginning to confuse the effects of the environment with side effects of being psychic. Ever since the war, there hadn't been a single cloud in the sky or any kind of sign of rain. People deemed it to be the radiation that changed the weather. With the sun constantly high in the sky and without any kind of protection, the little amount of human life on the planet often suffered from headaches. And with the air as dry as it always tends to be it wasn't surprising to hear that she could suffer from nosebleeds.

Adonai could feel that Ken was skeptical of her, and she didn't blame him. After all it wasn't entirely normal for someone to come out of the wood-works claiming to be a psychic. As a matter of fact, Adonai didn't really claim to be a psychic, it was everyone else who had given her the title. Especially her father. She remembered it almost like it was yesterday. Her father a good man and wanted what was best for whatever was left of his family. When his only daughter had finally lost her eyesight, he didn't know what to do. But when Adonai began confiding in him about her 'dreams' and how a lot of the time they came true, he decided then that he was going to some exploit that. People began coming to their village to see their futures foretold; and most of the time Adonai had to lie about it. As a young teenager at the time, she wanted to make her father proud of her. Despite the fact that she wasn't entirely proud of herself.

"Can you control them?"

Adonai was brought out of her daydream by the sound of Kenshiro's voice. She lifted her head from the seat. "Hm?"

"Can you control them?" he asked again, his voice a bit louder this time.

"I've… actually never tried too," she answered honestly, tugging at the bottom of her blouse. "I'm not sure why, guess I was just afraid."

"Afraid of what?"

"_Seeing _something that I don't want to see."

Silence fell between, and Adonai turned her head away. She couldn't help but feel as if she had just unearthed her deepest secret to a stranger. A stranger that didn't really understand her or believe in her powers. It was alright though; she knew that Ken could be trusted. Everything that she had _seen_ of him told her that.

Only a few minutes passed when she finally got that familiar feeling that she had already been here. As she sat forward a little bit, images flashed through her mind. A group of bandits was flocking at their left and moving in quickly. They had the intentions of crashing into Adonai and Kenshiro. Due to the high winds and the sound of the roaring engine of the jeep, Ken wouldn't have heard them until the last minute, and that was when they slammed into the vehicle, throwing it off of its path and onto the side. Adonai watched as her body was thrown around and injured. Kenshiro had reached out to hold onto her as the vehicle tumbled, but there wasn't much that he could do as it landed on her side.

Immediately Adonai was placed back into the present, her ears catching onto every sound that whirled around her. Realizing what was happening, she snapped her head towards Kenshiro and screamed.

"Slam on the brakes!"

Confused, Kenshiro looked at her but when she shouted it again, he took his foot off of the gas and did as he was demanded. As the jeep came to a sudden halt, the seat belts choking both of them, a vehicle pack full of bandits whizzed by them, obviously not understanding how they were able to see them. Adonai had her hand on the dashboard and the other on the console between them, steadying herself about to shout another command, but it was too late. They were surrounded. The sound of the revving engines raised panic in Adonai. Without the ability to hear passed the sound, she now felt that she was totally helpless.

Kenshiro could see the panic in her, and reached out to put his hand on hers that was settled on the console. She jumped, startled, but when she realized that it was Ken, her body relaxed. He took a moment to take in their situation. They were surrounded by foolish and most likely petty thieves who were looking to take from them. There were at least fifteen of them scattered across motorcycles and cars. Every single one of them was like every other bandit that he's faced, all of them with fun colored hair, weird clothing, stranger tattoos, and an uncanny look on their faces that always symbolized their need to assert authority and spill blood.

Kenshiro exited the jeep, his eyes scanning his opponents to see who seemed the itchiest. When none of them made a move on him, Ken spoke. "Leave us alone, and you don't have to die."

"Ha!" laughed the one man who moved himself into the front. Kenshiro could assume that he was the leader of this relatively small bandit group. He stood with his shoulders back and his head held high. He had the same confidence that Kenshiro has seen before, the kind that made someone cocky till they got knocked down. "Lucky for you, we're not here to fight. We're here for the girl."

"You can't have her."

"Really? Too bad," the bandit shrugged. "If you just handed her over, we won't have to kill you."

"You have been warned about leaving us be, if you don't leave I'll have to kill you."

The bandit, as always, got annoyed and gave the rest of his cult following the order to attack. It was a one-sided battle. Kenshiro was able to dodge or deflect the assaults that came at him easily, then one by one he began jabbing his fingers into the pressure points of his enemies. They all seemed startled that a simple poke could hurt as much as it did. When they recovered to realize that they weren't seriously injured, they aturned towards Kenshiro again. But then, one by one, their bodies began to alter, swell, then implode. It was enough to scare those that weren't affected back to their vehicles, and tak off. With the leader suddenly left alone standing against the monster that took out a good portion of his men, he made the smart decision in following them. Not without answering to the death of his men.

"You'll pay for this!"

Kenshiro waited till they were in the distance to turn back towards his vehicle to find that Adonai was still seated within it. She adjusted herself and turned her body towards the direction where she believed Ken to be standing, but he was actually a little further left.

"Are you hurt?"

Realizing her miscalculations, she turned toward the sound of his voice. "No, I'm alright. And you?"

"I'm good," Ken hopped back into the driver seat, "looks like we're going to be running into trouble frequently."

Adonai nodded. The two of them continued on their journey, but neither one of them addressed the elephant, how Adonai knew that Ken needed to stop the vehicle to avoid getting hit. Kenshiro was finding himself partially believing Adonai's plight.


	4. Bounty

**Chapter Four: Bounty**

He returned to the beaten down but also semi put together lair of the man that had hired him. He stood on the outside, his eyes looking up at the empty windows and broken glass. It took him a minute to figure out what he was going to do. Somehow, he had to go in there and tell that man that hired him to hijack the vehicle with the blind bitch and seven-scarred bastard in it to kidnap the girl. Did he do that? No. Instead he and his group ended up getting their asses kicked. Just about half of his men had been murdered, so now he had to go back out into the wasteland and recruit more.

This job was beginning to look and seem harder than it actually should be. If he had known that this woman was going to be so protected, he wouldn't have taken the job. He was desperate for supplies to keep his men in his ranks, now he rarely had any men left and nothing to show to get the reward.

He had to go in anyway.

The hired bandit ran his hand through his green mohawk as he walked inside. He traveled through the twisted hallways to reach the room that he was looking for. It was poorly lit with the candle sticks so spread out, and it smelled of musty filthy men. All around the room there were men situated, most of them eating, drinking, and playing cards. None of them taking in his existence. That is until their leader, a one-eyed man with a small head named Zoron, put down his chipped glass of alcohol to acknowledge the fact that he showed up empty handed.

"Why have you returned without the girl?" Zoron sneered, narrowing his eyes.

"Uh… well, you see…" the bandit stammered, trying to find the right words, "that man; the one with the seven scars. He's extremely strong! He somehow managed to make the heads of my men explode!"

Zoron frowned, "I know." He commented, setting his glass down. "But that still doesn't explain why you've returned Musta."

"Uh… well, I don't have any men," Musta answered honestly, feeling the anger bubble up inside of Zoron. It took him a moment to figure out what he was going to do, but as soon as Zoron stood, Musta took a step back.

Zoron had had enough. This man with the seven scars not only stole his precious property, but he has just started to make a mockery of him. How could one single man be this difficult to collect and kill? He couldn't forgive him for the things that he's done, and he especially couldn't forgive for taking out his eye.

Zoron growled. "Go out and get yourself some guys, then come back here."

"Listen, Zoron… I don't want to do this." The room grew silent and the tension thick. "This man that you hired me to go after, he's an animal."

Zoron gritted his teeth, "fine. Then I guess if you want something done right, you'll have to do it yourself."

Musta knew immediately what that meant and before he could turn to run or say anything else in his defense Zoron's men were on him with their clubs. The angered bandit stood in front of his throne watching as his men beat Musta to death. Then the sounds of battle erupted outside between the Zoron Bandits and whatever was left of Musta's men. It was a no brainer on who was going to take this fight. Ever since his first encounter with the seven scarred man he had ordered his men to go through a rigorous training exercises. They were well built and well prepared for battle.

His men hadn't been the only ones training. Zoron himself went through much of it and he felt stronger when he came out every time. He needed to be strong if he was going to plan on taking back his psychic woman and killing the man that had claimed his eyesight. Even so, Zoron decided that he was going to keep the bounty of their heads, but this time he was going to raise the reward.

"Next stop, Village of New Day."

xXx

It had been a few weeks since Keshiro and Adonai first started their journey. During that time Kenshiro realized how much he had actually missed the presence of someone else's company. And Adonai was good company. She was a smart and charming woman who's extremely curious. She liked to be as independent as she can and he tries to allow that for her, but he'd be a liar if he said there wasn't a part of him that was nervous. She was blind after all and in a world that everyone had been thrust into, she was at an extreme disadvantage. Kenshiro felt that he needed to make up for that on her behalf.

But she quickly – and always politely – reminded him that there were things that she could do alone and there were things that she allowed him to help her with. Such as walking in unfamiliar areas; after a short amount of time the two of them fell into a routine of Adonai helping herself from the car, but hooking arms with Kenshiro whenever they went somewhere together. Adonai also knew that when the time came to get serious, she backed off and allowed her partner to do what needed to be done in order for them to be safe. She never commented on it though, but she was oddly concerned about the amount of times trouble seemed to find them.

They both hoped that this stop was going to be different. Supplies had been getting low and this was the first town that they had seen with relative size in quite some time. Kenshiro pulled the roaring jeep up to a space just a few feet outside of the town's entrance. He threw the vehicle in park then stepped out. He looked over his shoulder as he heard Adonai's door open. Ken watched as she stepped out, placed her hand on the vehicle and followed along the back end of it till she was at his side.

"Are we here?"

"Yeah," he answered solemnly holding his arm out. When he felt her delicate hand hold onto his forearm, the two began to walk. "It's not a very big village, but we should be able to get some supplies out."

Adonai nodded, "alright."

They walked together, nearly in sync. Kenshiro was a giant compared to the fragile size of Adonai and he often found himself needing to take smaller steps than what he was used too for her. He didn't really mind most of the time. He enjoyed walking with her. In fact he enjoyed just about everything with her. Kenshiro found himself opening up to her nearly as much as he had with Yuria. It was strange for him. He had been a man of few words for such a long time, but Adonai had this comforting and trusting persona that allowed him to let go of most of the somber feelings that he carried. They had good conversations he had to admit, and he allowed her to open his eyes to things that he didn't think he needed to see.

"Do you think we can stay here?" inquired Adonai, as she turned her head up. "It'd be nice if we could get an actual bed to sleep in."

Kenshiro smiled a bit, "we could try."

"That's all I can ask for."

Over time, Kenshiro had learned that the best place to get any information on the town was going to the local bar. So, he kept his eyes open for the closest one and entered, opening the door for Adonai to allow her to enter first. He observed her closely as he watched the stank of alcohol smash into her senses like a pile of bricks. Adonai stepped towards the right and reached out to place her hand on the wall to steady herself. Ken stepped in and he took Adonai's arm lightly to guide her over to the bar.

All eyes were on them as they came in. They were an odd couple, both of them were aware of that but the amount of people that stared sometimes was uncanny. Both of them were over the constant question of 'you're blind?' or 'why are you traveling with her?' It was uncommon to see someone with a disability like Adonai's but it wasn't uncommon to come across ignorant people about it. People with disabilities were easier targets, and both Kenshiro and Adonai could guess that more than half of the men and women in this room had been plotting to mug them.

They approached the bar to speak with the bartender who had been standing there watching them closely. He had a rag thrown over his shoulder, a dirty off-white apron on and dark blue jeans. He was tanner than most of the folk in the room and his black hair complimented it. His dark brown eyes stared hard at his new customers knowing very well that neither of them was from around here.

"New comers huh?"

"Yeah… is it that easy to spot?" Adonai asked, sliding onto one of the bar stools as Kenshiro's arm hovered near her. She pushed it down lightly as he settled into the spot next to her, staying on his feet and leaning on the counter.

"Kinda," the bartender answered, lifting a wet glass from the drying rack in front of him. "It also helps that no one has ever seen a woman with hair the color of yours." He took the rag from his shoulder and started to dry the glass. "What can I do for you folks?"

"We're looking for supplies, and a decent place to sleep."

"Well, I have a few rooms upstairs that I can rent to you guys," answered the bartender as he set the glass down. "But it's not going to come free."

"What do you what?" asked Adonai.

"How long you plan on staying?"

"A few days," Kenshiro answered with a shrug. "At least."

"How about some help around here?" The man leaned against the counter, pointing at Kenshiro and Adonai. "You help me for the days that you're here, and you can sleep upstairs."

Adonai went to protest on the offer, as there wasn't much that she could do for the man. But she felt Kenshiro's gentle touch and heard his answer. "Done."

"Great! Now, as for supplies…" he leaned back and rubbed his chin. "There's a small shop just down the road there. You can see what he has to offer you."

"Alright, thank you." Adonai slid off of the stool.

"No problem."

The two of them then left the establishment, Adonai's fingers made little circles on Kenshiro's arm. "You didn't have to agree to those terms." She started. "I can't pull my weight in there."

"Don't worry about it," her guide reaffirmed, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. "I can take care of it."

She frowned a moment, but nodded her head. There was no use in arguing with him, she learned that lesson when they started on the road. He was a stubborn and protective guy, he pretty much did what was needed of him to do. Since she had asked to sleep somewhere other than in the beat-up jeep or the ground, it seemed like he felt obligated to get her into a nice bed. When that wasn't the case at all. She wanted to be able to pull her weight on this journey, and if that meant sleeping on the ground to do so, she would.

There was a trend with Kenshiro though. He typically tried or did accomplish anything that she asked for. Even if it meant just taking a break from the driving despite the fact that he might have made a comment about it earlier after her request. He did his best to look out for her on their travels, Adonai wanted to provide the same for him.

Most of their day had been spent talking with the shopkeeper and the bartender. The shopkeeper didn't have anything that the two of them needed; at least nothing that they couldn't get out of the bartender with just a few more hours of added work. This time Adonai refused to allow Ken to do all the work, so the bartender agreed to allow her to work in the kitchen where she could wash the dishes from the patrons. She knew that Kenshiro didn't particularly like it but she wanted to do it.

She had finished her chores just before Kenshiro did, and with a little guidance from him at the bottom of the stairs, Adonai had made it up to the room that the bartender had given them. At first the bartender was trying to push for them to have separate rooms – most likely to get more work out of them – but both Ken and Adonai declined. They received odd looks from the man that was giving them a place to sleep, especially since they both claimed that they weren't a couple. Adonai just felt safer with Kenshiro around. It was silly, or at least she had felt that it was silly, but she had a fear of being alone after everything that she had been through. It was something that she had brought up almost immediately when they started to travel together. She didn't want to be left alone for fear of something happening to her, whether that be getting a vision, or even one of Zoron's men coming to find her to take her back to him.

The thought terrified her, and she tried to shake it from her mind. It felt like the ground started to spin and she felt her knees getting weak as she started to feel her body swaying back and forth. Her head started to hurt, just behind her eyes started to feel like someone was taking a sledge hammer to her brain. She stumbled, putting her hands out in front of her to make sure that she didn't walk or fall into anything. Before she knew it, she lost consciousness.

Downstairs, the day had been finished and Kenshiro was helping Mako – the bartender had finally given up his name – put the bar chairs up on the tables. They only had two more tables left when both men heard a hard drop to the floor. Kenshiro turned his eyes upwards toward the ceiling and it only took half a second to realize that it was coming from the room that he and Adonai were renting out. Immediately he threw a chair out of his way and darted up the stairs.

"Hey! Watch the chair! I'm behind you!" Mako called out, running after Kenshiro. He burst into the room, the door swinging open hard to bounce back off of the wall. His eyes scanned the room and at first he didn't find anything out of place. Both of the beds were against one wall that were also neatly made. There was a nightstand in between them and a light hanging on the wall that didn't particularly work. The curtains were open to allow the natural light of the setting sun pour in and spill to the floor. The hardwood floor was in decent condition and surprisingly clean. A little dusty but it wasn't anything that was too terrible.

It all looked well in place, except for the fact that Adonai's legs stuck out from in between the beds. "Addie!" Kenshiro called as he rushed around the furniture to her side. She laid on her side, one arm stretched out that her head rested on with the other draped over her midsection. Blood dripped from her nose and her breathing was labored. This was the first time that he had seen her like this and this was the first time that he didn't really know what to do to help her.

"Hey… is she seizing?"

Kenshiro took a second look over her but then answered Mako by shaking his head. Slowly and carefully, he scooped the young woman into his arms, turning her onto her back carefully. Her head leaned against his forearm and her arms draped at her sides as he pulled her into his lap. He took a good look at her to see if there were any other injuries other than her nose bleed. Luckily it seemed like she didn't hit anything when she had collapsed. That was when he noticed her eyes. Behind her eyelids they were darting back and forth, as if she was watching something and couldn't quite figure out where to look. He didn't know what to do, neither did Mako. So the two of them sat in silence and watched her, waiting for the moment that she'd regain consciousness.

It seemed like hours had passed that he had been on that floor, but it was just less than half an hour before Adonai made a noise. Slowly she started to come too. When she opened her eyes, her vision was blurry and it took a moment or two of blinking them before they focused. The first thing that she saw was the concerned brown eyes of the martial artist; who gave her the slightest smirk when she finally awoke.

"Finally," Mako sighed in relief. "Are you alright? What happened?"

Kenshiro reached out to wipe her nose with his red shirt while she answered. "I just… I think I tripped and hit my head."

"Well, I'm glad that you're okay. Next time, we'll have to have someone escort you up here." Mako looked up at Ken as he backed toward to the door. "I'll finish up downstairs. You stay with her, just to make sure she's alright." And just like that, Mako was gone and Adonai was trying to sit up straighter. Ken wasn't having it. Slowly he lifted her from the floor as he stood, then placed her onto the bed.

"Vision?"

Adonai nodded, but her head felt like a hundred pounds. "Y-Yeah… that's… that's never happened like that." Her voice cracked, terrified. She laid down with the gentle guidance of Ken's hands.

"What was it?"

She turned her head towards him, trying to recognize the tone in his voice. During the weeks that they've traveled together, Kenshiro seemed to slowly accept the idea that it was quite possible she was psychic. The possibility of her body adapting and changing to the radiation from the nukes was an acceptable answer to what seemed to be unreal. A small part of her felt relief, but there was a hint of doubt that she needed to confront.

"Are… you starting to believe me?"

Kenshiro took a moment to answer her. He just stared, trying to find the words. He wanted to flat out say that he did. Through the weeks he had seen more than one occasion of her using her powers, or her powers coming to her that helped them out greatly. The one true occasion that stuck out at him was their first ride off together. At first, he wanted to believe that it was her hearing that overheard the motorcycles and vehicles of the bandits that threatened their safety. But as time went on, he knew that wasn't the case. Kenshiro was a well-trained man, he should have been able to pick them up without a problem; but he didn't. She was able to determine the exact moment of collision and there was no way that she could do that just by hearing them. He deemed that it was literally impossible for her to hear them over the roaring sound of their jeep's engine and whipping wind. He also knew that it wasn't luck.

"Yes," he reluctantly answered. Adonai's body relaxed and she heaved a breath as she closed her eyes. He could see that his simple answer nearly released all of her stress, and a part of him felt proud that he was able to do that for her.

"A bounty…" she finally mustered through the pain of her head. "There's a bounty on your head… because of me." Adonai frowned. "I'm sorry."

Ken placed his hand over hers. "Don't be. I made a promise to get you home. And I'll do it." He said sternly. "Is there anyone coming for us now?"

"I'm not sure." Adonai shook her head lightly, her brain screaming. "All I could make out was bounty… from Zoron."

Ken took a moment to reply. "Then we'll leave in the morning," he stood to sit on the bed next to her. His knees getting tired of kneeling on the hard floor. "At the next town we'll ditch the jeep for something different."

"Alright."

"For now, get some rest." Kenshiro stood up from the mattress and headed towards the window. He peeked out, his eyes now scanning for any kind of threat that might have been lurking in the shadows. He turned to say something to Adonai, but she was already fast asleep. Probably exhausted from her episode. He turned back towards the window, drew the curtains close then returned to the bed that he claimed. His eyes falling upon the sleeping form of his companion.

He was going to protect her, he had too.


End file.
